Briar Patch Books

Category: Popular fiction

  • Disaster, resilience and Grace

    Reviewed by Linda C. Brinson THE STARS ARE FIRE. By Anita Shreve. Random House Audio. Read by Suzanne Elise Freeman. 8 ½ hours; 7 CDs. $35. Also available in print from Knopf. In the long, hot summer of 1947, a drought took hold in Maine with a vengeance. By October, conditions were dire, and when…

  • The art of death in Detroit

    Bob Moyer takes a look at paperback original novel from a prolific writer of mystery stories. Reviewed by Robert P. Moyer SHOT IN DETROIT. By Patricia Abbott. Polis Books. 302 pages. $15, paperback. The 12 bodies in this book don’t get dead the same way. Some are gunned down, some are stabbed, and one is…

  • Murder in Atlanta

    Reviewed by Linda C. Brinson OLD BONES. By Trudy Nan Boyce. Read by Rebecca Lowman. Books on Tape. 10 ½ hours; 8 CDs. Atlanta is a powder keg after someone fires on a group of students from Spelman College who are demonstrating for police reform. One student from the historically black women’s college is killed,…

  • A good thriller, laced with romance

    Bob Moyer’s not particularly into vampire romance fiction, but if a vampire writer wants to try writing a thriller, he’s willing to see what she can do. Reviewed by Robert P. Moyer THE CHEMIST. By Stephenie Meyer. Little, Brown and Co. 528 pages. $28. Stephenie Meyer came out of left field with her Twilight series and…

  • A fresh perspective: The cursed Harry Potter

    Again this year, students in Paul T. O’Connor’s opinion-writing class in the School of Media and Journalism at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have contributed book reviews to Briar Patch Books. We welcome these reviews, which offer some different fare as well as fresh perspectives. Thanks to these bright students! Reviewed by…

  • Stone Barrington’s latest is rich with plot, action and politics

    Reviewed by Linda C. Brinson BELOW THE BELT. By Stuart Woods. Read by Tony Roberts. Penguin Audio. 8 hours; 7 CDs. $35. Also available in hardcover from G.P. Putnam’s Sons. I haven’t read nearly all of the Stone Barrington books, which Stuart Woods cranks out with alarming frequency. I have read enough of them to…

  • Frozen, a la Stephanie Plum

    Reviewed by Linda C. Brinson TURBO TWENTY-THREE. By Janet Evanovich. Read by Lorelei King. Random House Audio. 6 hours; 5 CDs. $32. Also available in print from Bantam Books. Janet Evanovich is one of those prolific writers with several series and a new novel of some sort appearing just about every time you turn around.…

  • Around the world with Dirk Pitt

    Reviewed by Linda C. Brinson ODESSA SEA. By Clive Cussler and Dirk Cussler. Read by Scott Brick. 12 hours. 10 CDs. $45. Also available in hardcover from G.P. Putnam’s Sons. If you like Dirk Pitt novels, you’ll get your money’s worth and more in Odessa Sea, No. 24, out just in time for Christmas. These…

  • Better than chicken soup

    Reviewed by Linda C. Brinson THE WHOLE TOWN’S TALKING. By Fannie Flagg. Read by Kimberly Farr. 16 CDs; 12 hours. $54. Also available in print from Random House. Just as there is comfort food, there are comfort books. Once again, Fannie Flagg has dished up the latter in fine style. Some people know Fannie Flagg…

  • Short but tasty

    Bob Moyer sent this review of from Germany. How can he read this book when so close to France and not go there? It’s a mystery to me. Reviewed by Robert P. Moyer FATAL PURSUIT. By Martin Walker. Alfred A. Knopf. 320 pages. $25.95 Stuffed neck of duck. That’s the solution for a minor mystery…